Original planning called for the 13,000 seat stadium to expand to 20,000 by the beginning of the spring in 2012 but costs and a lack of a suitable builder have caused the delays the club says.

Instead the team will begin their expansion season at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Not an ideal fit but Impact owner Joey Saputo said the club decided to play games there rather than to go on the road to start the season like so many other teams have done in the past.

“We had the option to start the season on the road or to look for an alternative,” Saputo added. “We prefer to play a few matches at Olympic Stadium. We want all games to be an event, especially our first game in MLS in Montreal.”

Honestly, I can’t blame them one bit for not wanting to go on the road to start the season. Depending on what time in the summer the stadium will be ready is key in that thought process. No word on whether or not it would be ready by June or August. Either way you don’t want to risk being on the road so much that it hurts your team in a way that they cannot dig themselves out of a massive hole by the time that they get home. It would be especially hard for an expansion team to have to deal with that kind of scheduling too.